Kanye West graces the May 2020 cover of GQ magazine and, unsurprisingly, had some colorful comments to share with editor-in-chief Will Welch. During their conversation, Kanye compared himself to not Jesus or Bill Gates — this time, it was the late Kobe Bryant.
“He was the basketball version of me, and I was the rap version of him, and that’s facts!” Ye said. “We got the commercials that prove it. No one else can say this. We came up at the same time, together. And now it’s like, yeah, I might have had a reputation for screaming about things — but I’m not taking any mess for an answer now. We’re about to build a paradigm shift for humanity. We ain’t playing with ’em. We bringing home the trophies.”
Later in the interview, Ye endorsed Donald Trump for the 2020 presidency, although he didn’t specifically mention Trump’s name. He also made it clear he wouldn’t miss his opportunity to cast his ballot.
“No, I’m definitely voting this time,” he said. “And we know who I’m voting on. And I’m not going to be told by the people around me and the people that have their agenda that my career is going to be over. Because guess what: I’m still here!”
Kanye was pressed about his 2005 comment regarding former POTUS George W. Bush as well.
“‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people’ is a victim statement,” he said. “‘This white person didn’t do something for us.’ That is stemmed in victim mentality. Every day I have to look in the mirror like I’m Robert De Niro and tell myself, ‘You are not a slave.’ As outspoken as I am, and the position that I am in, I need to tell myself.”
Kanye West Reaffirms His Allegiance To Donald Trump: ‘I’m A Black Guy With A Red [MAGA] Hat’
Ye reaffirmed his allegiance to Trump just last month during an interview with Wall Street Journal Magazine.
“I’m a black guy with a red [MAGA] hat, can you imagine?” he said. “It reminded me of how I felt as a black guy before I was famous, when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something. ‘This is your place, Ye, don’t talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you’re black, so you’re a Democrat.’”
Elsewhere in the discussion, the platinum-selling rapper admitted he was a “functioning alcoholic” but insisted that’s since changed.
“One day I was in my office working on the couture collection, and there was some Grey Goose in the fridge and I was just going to get a daytime drink, and I looked and thought, ‘Devil, you’re not going to beat me today,’” he recalled. “That one statement is like a tattoo.
“I haven’t had a drink since I realized I needed to take it day by day, but I never owned up, or was even told, ‘Hey, you’re a functioning alcoholic.’ People have called me a crazy person, people have called me everything — but not a functioning alcoholic. And I would be drinking orange juice and Grey Goose in the morning.”